PC AND DASDUINO’S SERIAL COMMUNICATION – SERIAL MONITOR

PC AND CRODUINO'S SERIAL COMMUNICATION - SERIAL MONITOR-Uncategorized

There are many ways to read and write on the Serial Port using Arduino, and here we will demonstrate the simplest one. Make sure to use it in order to avoid frustrating ways! 🙂 While we have just briefly turned to Serial Monitor in previous tutorials, in this one, we will explain in detail how to work with it, whether with Arduino IDE or Atmel AVR Studio. Generally, Serial Monitor can be used with any serial device connected to your computer. 

SERIAL MONITOR

Serial Monitor is an addition to the Arduino IDE software. You have most likely already come across it if you have ever done some Arduino project, e.g. reading the temperature off the DHT sensor. Besides reading the current code condition, it allows sending and receiving text messages and as such it is very practical in tracing errors in the code (debugging, controlling Dasduino using a keyboard or for viewing the data printout). But, one by one..

Note:  before moving on, connect the Dasduino board and select Board and Port under Tools tab  of the Arduino IDE software 

Serial monitor is initiated by clicking on the magnification icon or using the Ctrl+Shift+M key combination.

Basic properties:

COM Port – virtual port through which we want to create serial communication between the computer and the Dasduino board 
BAUD – a unit of pulse per second for the UART communication
LINE ENDING: (detailed)
No line editing – sends what is written

Newline – to the written text, it adds ASCII symbol for new line (equivalent to “\n”)

Carriage return – to the written text, it adds ASCII symbol for return (equivalent to “\r”)

Both NL & CR – to the written text, it adds both Newline and Carriage return

 

DASDUINO TO SERIAL MONITOR

We begin the serial communication with Serial.begin(); which is set in the setup part of the code. The parameter assigned to the function is BAUD rate. It has to coincide with the one from the Serial Monitor so that we do not read “hieroglyphs” that may occur because of incompatibility in the speed of communication.

void setup() {
  // beginning serial communication
  Serial.begin(9600); // the same BAUD Rate is set in the Serial Monitor
}
void loop() {
}

Writing commands:

Serial.print() – prints readable data supported by ASCII, e,g,

Serial.print(“Pozz”); – prints Pozz
Serial.print(22); – prints 22
Serial.print(1.4142); – prints only two digits after the decimal point 1.41

Serial.println() – after what is entered, it prints a new line, i.e. adds “\n” in the end of the sent string
Serial.write() – prints out just one byte

Additional parameter:

e.g.:
Serial.print(22,BIN);
 – turns 22 to binary number, prints out 10110
Serial.print(22,HEX); – prints 16
Serial.print(1.4142,5); – number 5 indicates the number of decimal spots being printed out, prints 1.41420

SERIAL MONITOR TO DASDUINO

Reading commands:

Serial.read() – reads the first byte of the default variable

int sm_int = 0;
void setup() {
  // beginning serial communication
  Serial.begin(9600); // the same BAUD Rate is set in the Serial Monitor
}
void loop() {
  if( Serial.available() ) {
    sm_int = Serial.read();
    Serial.println(sm_int, DEC);
  }
}

Serial.readString() – reads the default variable and saves it to String

String sm_string = "";
void setup() {
  // beginning serial communication
  Serial.begin(9600); // the same BAUD Rate is set in the Serial Monitor
}
void loop() {
  if( Serial.available() ) {
    sm_string = Serial.readString();
    Serial.println(sm_string);
  }
}